Recovering southwestern willow flycatcher populations will benefit riparian health

Abstract

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed the southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii exigua) as federally endangered in 1995, new incentives, controversies and energy were generated to conserve and restore southwestern riparian ecosystems. Close attention has been focused on river and stream conservation in the Southwest since at least 1977, when the U.S. Forest Service and other partners hosted a symposium entitled "Importance, Preservation and Management of Riparian Habitat" in Arizona (Johnson and Jones 1977). Although the symposium and other volumes (e.g., Rea 1983) precipitated new research on riparian ecosystems and their inhabitants, sound management of river habitats was not immediately implemented. The conservation of water and riparian resources for flora and fauna competed with the blunt call to supply drinking and irrigation water for the expanding human populations of California and Arizona (Rea 1983). Not until concerns for disappearing populations of riparian and aquatic species, such as the willow flycatcher and several fish, took center stage in the 1990s owing to strong petitions and listings under the Endangered Species Act did restoration and protection of rivers and streams in the Southwest become a top priority.

Citation

Finch, Deborah M. 1999. Recovering southwestern willow flycatcher populations will benefit riparian health. In: McCabe, Richard E.; Loos, Samantha E., eds. Transactions of the 64th North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Conference; March 26-30, 1999; Burlingame, California. Washington, D.C.: Wildlife Management Institute. p. 275-292.